From Hell and Back
by treehugger195
Summary: My take on Stephen's captivity at Port Mahon. Possible spoilers for the "HMS Surprise". Yet again, I must say that my summaries are not the best! :)
1. Default Chapter

Hey ya'll! I'm back ;) I started school, so updates may be in long spans of time.

This story may have some inaccurate material in this or any other chapters in the near future, so don't get mad at me.....PLEEZ! ;)

ENJOY

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Some things you can never truly prepare yourself for, some things just seem to be nightmares that never grace your dreams until they happen. Then, it seems, everything goes to Hell. You cannot help yourself, you seem to trap yourself in a cage of darkness and pain and no one has the key, you perish within your own walls, a skeleton in the dark. I, Stephen Maturin, know this first hand and this is my story.

I walked silently up the pathway to a house that I owned in Spain. I had been out exploring the land for creatures as I had had much free time on my hands, but that was soon to be taken away because Jack was going to pick me up in just a few days of time. I walked inside and I immediately sensed that someone was in their.

"Hello?" and as though in response I felt someone grab me from behind. The wrapped their arm around my neck, causing me to drop my notebook and pen. I was gasping for air, but that didn't stop me from fighting back. I heard a rather harsh voice utter in French, "Dr. Maturin I presume. I hope you don't mind if I take you for some questioning."

My eyes grew ten times bigger. I had been warned about this. The French knew who I was and what I do for a living. I should have known that they would come after me. Thinking fast, I managed to kick my assailant in a rather sensitive spot and was released. With this new found freedom, I took my chance and ran out the same way I walked in, but didn't get very far as I tripped in my haste. As I lifted myself off the ground, I could here thundering footsteps approaching. I was suddenly flipped over onto my back and saw that my attacker was some what of an ugly brute. The white hot fury that was shining upon his face was evident as he lunged himself towards me.

At the last moment, I managed to roll out of the way and quickly sprang up onto my feet. The ill-looking man landed full force onto the ground and laid there motionless. Thinking I was out of trouble, I approached the limp body before, but this proved to be a mistake.

As I hesitantly staggered towards the man, he jumped up with an ungodly shriek. He picked up a rather large branch that must have fallen from the near-by tree and knowing what would happen if I didn't move, ran. Once, again this proved to be a fatal mistake as I fell once more, but this time I didn't get up. I tried to get up, but was forced back down by a harsh blow. The pain shot throughout my body and I looked up in fear and the man uttered in French, "Dr. Maturin, say good night." With one last blow to my head, I was out.

I awoke to find myself strapped to a wall with chains. My head hurt and my eyes seemed too heavy to open, but I managed to get them completely open to see my surroundings clearly. I heard unearthly shrieks of pain coming from behind a door that seemed to stare at me with a sneer upon its wooden façade. The smell of vomit and stale urine gusted up my nose and I knew that this was surely Hell on earth.

I looked around at the room and found men on the floor that had clearly been thrown to the ground and some that were starved to the point that I could see their bones through their tattered clothing. I could feel the misery seep into my veins and consume my very being.

I felt a weak tug on my pants and looked down at a skeleton of a man staring desperately at me. "Please," he whispered with urgency, "don't let them hurt me. Don't let them take me." The man's dull and dying eyes chilled me to the bone, but before I could make a response, a guard came over and took the man and pushed him, with great force, against the wall. I watched in horror as the man slid down the wall and crumbled onto the ground. The man was surely dead. The guard laughed with malevolence seeming to pour out of him.

He turned to me with a smirk on his face and growled in French, "Don't worry," he looksedover at the dead man, "You'll be joining him soon."

Surely, this was Hell on earth.


	2. The Hands of Fire

Hey ya'll! Second Chap. up! This one might seem rushed, but I was just excited! I couldn't wait to upload it.

Thanks for the reviews!

**Enjoy

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I awoke to find myself in another room. It was much bigger and looked as if it were an office from the desk that sat across from where I was chained. I looked around and soon realized I was not the only one in the room.

"Ah, Doctor Maturin, how glad I am to see you awake," a man with a strong French accent remarked. He stepped forward and I saw that he was a rather evil looking man. His face had a smirk painted upon it and his cold eyes could compare with those of snakes as his pupils resembled slits in the light. "We can begin our questioning now."

He called out and two men entered, one with a chair and another with a metal rod. I was taken down from the wall and roughly forced into the chair. The ill-looking man that had spoken to me walked in front of the chair and sat on the desk that I had seen just moments before. The man that had walked in with the rod now stood in front of a fireplace and was heating the metal object up and he only took it out when it was red with heat.

"Doctor Maturin," the French man began, "I am going to ask you some questions, and for every time you do not answer, you will be punished. Now, we know of your friend, Aubrey, apparently he is a very important captain in the Royal Navy. Tell me, where is he heading? What is his mission?"

I looked that man in his snake-like eyes and did not reply. I would not sell out my friend to this man, no matter the punishment and after he realized this he took one of my hands and mused, "Doctor, your hands are no doubt your most important tool in your line of work are they not?" I cringed as he traced an unseen pattern upon my hands, but still did not reply. "You know, it would be ashamed if they were to be injured somehow. Then you wouldn't have the ability of performing surgery." He looked down at me to see if I looked as though I were giving in.

I looked him into the eyes once more and hissed, "You can do what you want with me, but I will never give in to your petty threats."

The smirk upon the man's face increased and he gave a fake sigh and took the hot, metal rod and put it hazardously close to my hands and replied, "I can do anything and you won't tell, eh? Well, we might just have to test that theory," he said coolly and he plunged the end of the pole into my hands.

The searing pains shot through me as I soon became aware of the incredible burning sensation in my hands. I gave a shriek, though I tried my hardest not to, and the man laughed wickedly as he again and again stabbed my hands with the burning stake.

I took in short, shallow breaths trying to get the pain to stop, but it was increased when I heard and smelt my own flesh sizzling. The sound almost made me sick. I closed my eyes tightly and I tried to pull away, but the man just attacked my hands with more force.

Madness flickered through the man's eyes and he pushed me over so I tumbled onto the ground. When he saw I was there, he began to strike my huddled body and the pain came more ruthlessly than before. My shirt was beginning to set on fire and I began to roll to stop the fire, but found that this only brought more pain. That is when I realized that my strength was now failing me and my bravery began to crumble. I began to weep wildly and shook with a mixture of fear and pain. My eyes began to unfocus and I knew that I was slipping.

The evil man gave me a swift kick in the stomach just to make sure that I was in enough pain. He turned to the two other men and exclaimed, "I think he's had enough! Take him to a cell down stairs and chain his feet and hands! He gets no food and show him no pity! This should teach a lesson."

"Aye, sir," the men responded almost automatically and everything went black.


	3. Hope

Hey ya'll chapter three is up! Thank you for all of your positive reviews! I love ya'll a bunch :)

As always, Enjoy!

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I jerked out of the darkness by a pain that shot through my recently tortured hands. I gasped out in pain and a cruel voice replied, "You have some visitors, a priest and a citizen. I could leave you hanging there instead." He continued to take me down and roughly placed my on a bench. I looked across the table and there was indeed a priest, but also another man, a man that I knew from an organization that I was apart of named John Margall. I peered at him and he gave me a small nod. "Now, I will leave you to your visitors but you only have ten minutes," the guard said looking at the priest.

After he walked out I looked over at my visitors and asked, "John Margall, is that you?"

"Yes Esteban, it is I," he replied with a small smile and pointed at the priest, "and this is my brother, Father Margall. How are you doing, I just found out that you were in here yesterday."

"I am doing tolerably well," I muttered looking down at my mutilated hands. I did not want to worry them, but the priest had already caught a glimpse at my hands.

"Dear child!" he exclaimed in horror, "Your hands, what have they done to you? Your hands have nasty burns and holes and some of your finger nails have melted away!"

I looked sheepishly up at the two men and replied, "I was tortured with a metal rod that was heated until it was red." I lifted my hands to where John could see them also and his face matched that of his brother's.

"Esteban, we must get you out of here. There is no telling what they will do next!" John exclaimed quietly as not to be heard, "When did you say that Jack Aubrey was coming?"

At this statement, a fact hit me rather hardly, "He is supposed to pick up tonight at the caves near the beach, do you know of where I speak?"

"Ah, yes, I know of what place you speak of," remarked Father Margall.

I nodded at the priest and continued, "Well, Jack is supposed to send a jolly-boat out from the ship and pick me up there but he does not know that I am here. If I am not there, I do not know how he would react."

"You could send me down there, that way I can tell him where you are and we can join together and plan to get you out of here," John stated with brightened eyes.

"How brilliant you are!" I exclaimed, "But he may grow suspicious that you are a spy." At this, both of the men's hopeful expression grew grave.

"How can we make sure that this will not happen?" the priest muttered under his breath. We all were in deep thought when an idea came to me.

"Give me some paper and a pen, if you please," I suddenly broke the silence. Father Margall looked surprised but still produced a notepad and a pen from a pocket and set it before me.

"What are you going to do?" John staggered.

I picked up the pen with my hand and gasped in pain when the cool pen hit my deep, oozing cuts. John's eyes widened and exclaimed, "Surely you should not cause yourself pain!"

I looked up at him and replied; "It is the only way that he will know that you are not a spy. I will not die in this hell hole, even if it means I have to cause myself some pain." With that, I concentrated on my note. My hand was terribly shaky and the pen wavered across the paper and from my hand writing, you could tell that my message was painfully written. I signed it off and pushed it towards John.

"Give this to him and if he still does not believe you I have provided some information on the back that only I would know to tell him, if he still does not believe you, then God be with you."

The footsteps of an approaching guard made John stuff the note into his pocket and Father Margall said loud enough for the approaching man to here, "God be with you my child. We shall pray for you."

Catching on to what he was doing I replied, "Thank you Father and God be with you."

The guard opened the cell door and stepped inside, "Time's up."

As I was chained up to wall once more, I watched my visitors walk away and muttered to myself, "God be with you and God guide Jack's suspicious mind."


	4. Bravery Punished

Hey ya'll! Yeah another chapter! ;) Thank you for all the reviews, I am glad to hear that people like my writing!

Note: This chapter is a little short.

Enjoy!!!

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The next day, all the prisoners, including me, were shepherded out to the grounds of the prison. The sunshine blinded me and I had to shield my eyes, though my hands stung at the touch of my skin. We were formed into a circle around a wooden block and a man with his head upon it. That was when I realized we were about to witness an execution.

When we were all situated to where everyone would be able to see this brave man's head chopped off, a man with an axe stepped through the crowd. I did not recognize him at first but at a second glance, I saw that it was the evil man who had tortured me but two days ago. He looked around the staggered and wavering crowd of prisoners and his smirk appeared in full strength.

"You are all here," he yelled, "to witness the death of a fool. He did not comply with us and so we must put him to death. Let this be as an example. If you do not do as we say, we will be forced to punish you with death." He turned and looked at the man whose fear was hidden by his determined and strong look upon his face. "Do you have any last words?"

"Yes," the prisoner began, "I just want to say that no one should be afraid of these French swine. They are all cowards and are afraid that if they do not get rid of revolters, like me, that they will be over thrown. Do not fear them my brothers, they are cowards too."

The evil man's smirk disappeared for a moment, but returned when he screamed, "You will pay for that fool!" and with a swift movement of the axe, the brave man's head rolled onto the ground. The men around me gasped in sheer horror of the event, but I stood in an unmoved stance and watched my torturer jumping around in glee, as though he were a child that had just recieved a present.

He picked up the head of the dead man and put one of his hands under it so the blood would cover his hand and in these barbaric actions, I soon began to realize that this man was not sane. He swung the head around by its hair and yelled out in a proud way. He stopped and circled the crowd slowly and made sure to show the head to everyone.

"See this? This is what will happen to you if you listen to that fool and try to be a hero. You will end up just like him! Listen to us and your life here won't be as bad, but if you fail to listen to us, then we will make your life a living hell."

He scanned the crowd over with his cold eyes and stopped when his gaze fell upon me. He dropped the head onto the ground and approached me with a look of pure hatred that I will never forget. I kept my poise, though as intimidated as I was and looked him straight in the eye as he came closer and closer.

He stopped when he was only a foot away from me and chuckled a little. He grasped my cheeks with both of his hands and planted a forced kiss upon my lips and roughly pulled away from me. He brought his head into my neck and hissed into my ear, "Answer my questions or your next."

I trembled in fear and took in a shallow breath. He sensed my fear and cackled loudly as he pushed me to the ground. He kicked dust into my face and turned away. He marched off as the men around me helped me up and set me straight. I let one of my hands touch my cheek, as I felt something wet upon it. I looked down at my hand and saw blood on my fingers and palm and I shook with absolute terror. This was the blood of the executed man.

For the rest of that day, that scene kept replaying inside of my head. I could not sleep without that dream haunting me. I looked around my bare and lonley cell and realized just how much trouble I was in.

"Lord Jack, please save me," I trembled and my eyes grew weary and shut.


	5. My Angel

Hey ya'll this is the last chapter for this story! Yee!!!

I want to thank everyone who reviewed and I love you all! ;)

ENJOY!!!!

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The next day I was suddenly awaken by the sound of rushing footsteps approaching my cell at a very rapid pace. The door swung open and very anxious and hurried men ran towards me and fumbled with my handcuffs, as though trying to get them undone. When they had accomplished that they urged me to walk, but being as weak as I was I could not. They tried to force me into walking but I kept falling onto the ground, so they resorted to carrying me to the final destination.

My head swayed from side-to-side as I could not hold up my head and my eyes open and closed slowly. When I was set back into handcuffs I slumped over again only to be snapped up by the force of a strong hand. I soon realized that I was looking into the eyes of my torturer. His usually cold and evil eyes were now glazed with fear and insanity. His hand steadily shook my limp head and his grip tightened with every shake.

"You did this," he hissed, drawing my head closer to his, "You have to of done this. You are the reason that they are coming."

Though my eyes were heavy with weakness, they soon had question mist over them. "What are you talking about?" I murmured slowly.

"You know of what I speak!" He threw me to the wall and I painfully slid down it, scratching my all ready bruised and burned back. "You friend, Jack Aubrey, he is coming, he is almost here and he is coming for you!" He looked down at me and a small twitch ran across his face, his smirk erased. "He won't get you though, no. I'll make sure he never finds you; that I can promise."

At the words of Jack's coming, a new hope raised in me, but a part of me was now worried what this man, insane with fear, was going to do to me before Jack could get here. He started pacing muttered under his breath.

He finally turned to me with a glare and condemned, "I will have to finish what I have started." He looked down at my hands and shook his head as though to affirm that this was the right thing to do, that this would solve all of his problems.

He swiftly walked over to his desk and pulled out a drawer that was loaded with horrible looking devices. He floated his hands above each one, as though to sense their abilities. He picked up a club with tiny spikes on the end of it.

He surely meant to kill me.

He walked forward, as I backed into the wall and he pressed the spikes against my mutated flesh. He looked me in the eyes and never dropped his gaze as he impaled me with the barb. I gasped in pain, not willing to cry out, as he pulled the club across my stomach, making a line of blood appear on my already soiled shirt.

I snapped my eyes shut and clutched my hands into fists, which only caused me greater pain. Then suddenly, I felt the point taken out of me. I opened my eyes to see that other French officers were now in the room and they looked anxious and scared.

"Sir, the English Captain is coming; he has almost penetrated the bottom floor. Should we fight?" an unsure officer sputtered.

The evil man turned to look at him and replied, after eyeing me one more time, "No, it is him that they want," he pointed towards me, "and by your looks, I would say that we are outnumbered. No, I want you to get all the rest of the officers on this floor and escape through the passage and I will come with you." He turned back to me and gave me one last blow that caused me to slip slowly back into darkness.

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I awoke to the sound of screams and yells from men, a sound I had long forgotten. I heard footsteps running towards the door that was holing them away from me, who ever they were.

They were now slamming the door, as though to open it and a part of me was frightened, but another was relieved.

When the door finally gave way, it was like an angel stepped into the room. Light flooded into the room and momentarily blinded me, but when I could see again I knew this angel.

"Jack," I called out softly, as though to myself.

I soon saw his face; it was riddled with worry and a fear that scarcely graced his face before. I smiled at him, as to reassure him that I was alright, even though we both knew that I was indeed not.

He stepped forward and immediately got to work on my handcuffs. He did not notice my hands for the haste that he took gave me great pain and I whispered, "Handsomely dear."

Then I felt myself fall into his arms and I knew I was safe again.

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I was laid down onto a cart and could feel the cool night air gently whisper across my face and into my hair. The fresh air filled my lungs and I felt a little better.

I stared up into the sky and saw the stars blinking lightly upon the canvas sky. I looked back a bit more and saw the solemn face of Jack. He looked down at me and gave me a small smile. He put his hand upon my shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze. I turned my head to where it was upon Jack's warm hand and he slowly ran it up my face and into my hair where he gently stroked me.

We entered our final destination and I was carried by Bonden and Jack up the stairs into a room where a man and women sat waiting by a bed with medical tools and swabs. I was placed on the bed and Jack sat where he was positioned so he only faced the upper part of me, my neck and head.

"Dr. Maturin, I know that this may hurt, but I have to clean you wounds. Just relax," a gentle voice of a man spoke.

I could feel my shirt being unbuttoned with utmost delicacy with each button. My shirt, though gently stripped off, clung onto my healing wounds, causing me great pain when it finally did let go.

The man took my hands gently and examined them before he placed some ointment and bandages upon them. This did not cause me great harm, as my hands where gently handled with care and partly because Jack was stroking my hair in a calming way.

Then the pain came.

The man was now dealing with my stomach and torso and the pain was incredible. My eyes began to water and I tensed up. I finally closed my eyes tightly and let out a painful breath, but then, through all this pain, heard a soothing voice that was cooing to me. My breathing was rigged and with every breath, fresh pain was inhaled, but Jack seemed to soothe every part of me.

I opened my eyes to meet his blue eyes boring into mine and I whimpered. He looked at me with concern and love. He wiped the beads of sweet that traveled down my face and pressed his cheek against mine. He ran his hands through my hair and still cooed into my ear, even though I was fidgeting with pain.

Finally, the doctor said, "There, I am done. You can rest now."

I sighed with relief and let out my remaining sobs of pain and relaxed. Jack looked down at me and whispered in my ear, "See, love, everything is going to be alright," and he gave me a small kiss on my cheek. "I love you, Stephen, and I need you to stay strong. You should rest." He got up as though he was going to leave.

I looked back at him and replied shakily, "Jack, don't leave me, please. I cannot sleep without you by my side."

His eyes started to mist over and he replied, "My dear, do not mistake for one second that I will ever leave you; you, soul, are far too important to me." He sat down next to me and stayed with me the rest of the night and into the next day, never leaving.

As I look back upon that night, all I remember is thinking Jack an angel of mercy and love. Who knows, maybe he is my own angel. What I do know is that he is the reason I am still alive today. Jack is my angel that retrieved me from Hell and brought me back to the light.


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